I am confused! I have just received a new MacBook with Leopard and I need to run only one little program which only is designed for Windows. I see there is a Boot Camp installation on my machine but do I need to install my complete Windows XP only to run one program which operates in its own shell (it's a banking prog) ? I don't know the difference between Parallels and Boot Camp and whether I need both or just one in order to do this?
Any thoughts please? Thanks.

Most probably you wont need to run Windows via bootcamp if it's just one proggy.

Bootcamp: Need to reboot to get into Windows. Full speed however.
Parallels or Fusion: No need to reboot, windows runs within OS X. Still need to install Windows though. Doesn't run full speed, but it is acceptable for most purposes.
Crossover: No need for Windows. Runs the program as if a mac app. Doesn't run full speed, and doesn't work with many complicated programs.

Thanks that's really useful information. I did look at the Boot Camp set up on the notebook and see that it partitions to a min of 5Gbs to run Windows which seems unnecessary just to run one small prog so will look at the Crossover prog. Also when I tried to install my Win XP (registered) disk it asked for the installation/set up disk which i don't seem to have or never have had because the drivers were always on my PC.
Can I delete the 5Gb partition that was set aside for Windows?
Ta.

What is the name of the one little program?
Maybe there is a mac version?

Unfortunately there's not! It's called Money Manager from www.moneysoft.co.uk Since I've built up a data base of my accounts from 1991 on my PC.
I didn't want to start a new finance prog like Quicken (for which I read bad reports of the Mac version) because I could refer to to my history if the Tax Authorities asked for info!
Such is the dilemma when you dump Windows PC#s for Mac!

I tried installing the demo of Money Manager under Crossover, and unfortunately it simply crashes just trying to install. Crossover is simply not gonna cut it as a solution.

Unfortunately one of the problems you and others are facing with a platform change is support for your "legacy" software where there is no Mac version. Does one "simply" continue using Windows in some limited form for a limited number of apps, or do you suck it up and switch to a new app? If you are a switcher for the long-term, then personally I think the best approach is the latter. I would export your data to whatever format may be at your disposal that can be read on OS X and switch wholesale to a new native app that meets your needs. If you can't outright export to a Quicken-compatible format, then maybe you can "print to pdf" your entire history, for example.

As for a new app.. there are quite a few money managers for OS X. Quicken did have a pretty serious issue with one version. I was recently trying out the newer version myself, but after reading of the issues I requested a refund within my trial period because I felt that bug was simply inexcusable, not to mention the software was just way overpriced for my needs. You may want to look into iBank. They have version 3 in beta and from what I read, it is going to be one incredibly nice app.

Thanks for all that information and especially for trying it out in Crossover. I suppose I could install Windows in Parallels and run the prog but seems a lot of effort and use of space just for one prog! I think the answer is to go with your suggestion and start off 2008 with a new Money prog but the thought of not being able to refer to the back data is a major problem! So am still thinking!

It seems I wasted my money on buying Crossover (should have gone for the trail version!) and am sure they will not give a refund!